


Blue and Green

by cytheriafalas



Category: SHINee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-06
Updated: 2013-07-06
Packaged: 2017-12-17 21:41:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/872242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cytheriafalas/pseuds/cytheriafalas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: "I'd like some mermaid!key seducing sailor!jonghyun" This probably isn't quite what you meant... I hope you like it anyway. Jonghyun is the captain of a ship that stops at an island to reprovision for a voyage and he happens upon Kibum, a mermaid (or merman, as he much prefers to be called).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blue and Green

“All right,” Jonghyun called, raising his voice so the rest of his crew could hear him over the water lapping against the side of his ship. “We’ll stay here for the night. Gather some provisions, as much water as we can hold. This is the hardest part of our voyage, but I know we can all do it. We’ve done it before and we’ll do it again!”

There was a lackluster response from his crew, but they were all eyeing the rowboats and the island. They hadn’t been on land in months and he knew most of them were dying to feel solid earth beneath their feet again. His second, Minho, came up to him.

“Lots have been drawn and everyone’s been assigned their watches. We’re ready to go.”

“Pay attention, men!” Jonghyun called. “Everyone who didn’t lose their draw, head for a boat. The rest of you, second shift will be back in six hours to relieve you.” The response that time was much more enthusiastic, two-thirds of his crew launching themselves for the waiting rowboats. He lowered his voice. “What did we get?”

“I got third shift, you got second.”

“I’ll take six hours on land over nothing,” Jonghyun said. “Let’s go.”

Jonghyun spent two hours getting his men settled and directing some of them to go after the various supplies they needed—water, food, wood. After that, he left Minho in charge and headed inland for a few hours by himself.

There was a gentle stream flowing down into the ocean. It was large enough he knew it had to go some ways inland, so he walked along it. Within a few minutes he found himself enveloped in a forest, following a deer trail along the stream. Someone had introduced game here not too long ago, but they had flourished without any natural predators aside from the humans stopping here before they started the last leg of the sail.

Jonghyun lost track of how long he’d walked, but it must have been quite a distance. He could no longer hear the ocean or the voices of his crew. All he could hear was the gentle breeze blowing through the trees and the stream rippling. Every so often he heard a louder splash, but he only saw a flash of blue and green. It must have been a trout headed upstream to spawn.

He found the stream to begin in a large pool, almost perfectly round with a natural rock boundary, smoothed with years of flowing water. Several other streams flowed into and out of it, but Jonghyun decided to sit beside it. He’d kicked his shoes off and was just sitting when he heard a quiet voice from behind him.

“Hello.”

He spun back toward the voice. A man was swimming in the pond, arms moving slowly in the water to keep him afloat. Jonghyun had no idea how he’d missed him.

“H-hello,” Jonghyun said, cursing himself for stammering. He had to pause to collect himself. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there. I can go somewhere else--”

“No,” the man said. He disappeared below the water and then reappeared right at the edge, resting his arms and upper body on the dark rocks. “I rarely see people here. Who are you?”

Jonghyun couldn’t even answer right away, staring at the man in the water. He was… He was beautiful. There was no other word to describe him. “Handsome” wasn’t right, although he certainly was that. His skin was pale, almost too pale, as though he had never truly been in the sun. His dark eyes were shining with curiosity, staring out at Jonghyun from a perfect face, high cheekbones and lips damp with water, framed with short, dark hair. It wasn’t until Jonghyun’s eyes reached further down this man’s body, eyes trying to discern something in the flashing blue and green depths of the water, that he realized he was staring. Inappropriately staring. He jerked his eyes back up to find the other man’s eyes sparkling with laughter.

“I’m… um, Jonghyun.”

“Well, ‘um Jonghyun,’ you can call me Kibum.”

“Er, no, I mean… My name is Jonghyun.”

That perfect face brightened in a grin and Jonghyun caught sight of small white teeth. His canines seemed just a little too pointed, but he lost sight of them when Kibum started speaking. “I figured. Come swimming with me, Jonghyun.”

Jonghyun opened his mouth to protest, but he couldn’t find any legitimate reason why he shouldn’t. His clothes would dry quickly in the sun, and it couldn’t have been _that_ far back to the ship. Dismissing the knot in his stomach, he pulled his shirt off and slid into the pool. It was cooler than he’d expected, but still warm enough to be comfortable. There was even a ledge just low enough for him to sit and have most of his body submerged, the rocks behind him smooth.

Kibum swam up to him, an arm coming behind Jonghyun, fingertips running up his spine. “You’re a brave man, Jonghyun. Not many people would get into the water with me.”

He was about to ask what he meant when his heart seized in his chest. He understood what his body had been trying to tell him, why he’d tried so hard to look into the water, why he’d tried to resist getting into the water, what his mind had refused to see. Just below the narrowest point of Kibum’s waist, Jonghyun began to see scales, blue and green to match with the water’s depths.

“You’re… A mermaid?”

Kibum scoffed, swimming a little ways away and flicking his, well, tail, in Jonghyun’s direction, sending a light spray of water across his face. “Do I look like a ‘maid’ of any type to you?”

“Mer…man?”

“It’s what your people call me, yes. Such an inelegant term, but I haven’t time to properly educate you. You have six hours on land, I heard?”

“How did you…”

“I’ve been following your ship for a while,” Kibum murmured, coming a little closer to Jonghyun. He wanted to back away. If he could get out of the water, he was safe. He didn’t want to get away. He wanted to move a little closer, see if this merman’s skin felt the same as a human, or if it felt like a dolphin, or maybe a shark.

“It’s okay,” Kibum said, holding out his hand, palm up. He had a thin strand of what looked like silver and pearl intertwined around his ring finger. “You can touch me if you want.”

Jonghyun jerked back a little, his back hitting the edge of the pond. “How did you know…” He was so confused. Different parts of him were screaming at him to do so many different things that his brain felt muddled. He knew what he should be doing, but he most definitely was not getting out of the water and running to Minho to get their harpoons, or at least blocking Kibum in this pool until his ship and sailors were safe, because it would be an atrocity to harm this beautiful of a being.

“We’re a special type of creature,” Kibum said. A flick of his tail had him right up in front of Jonghyun again. “We have certain talents. Come on. Try. Touching me won’t hurt you. You may even find you like it.”

Jonghyun reached forward. His fingertips landed on Kibum’s collarbone, just beneath a necklace that appeared to be of the same material as the ring he wore on his left hand, and then slid downward, palm pressing across skin that felt… just like skin, wet, but unaffected by the constant submersion in water. He traced bands of muscle no human would have, an abdomen designed to power a tail rather than legs, all the way down to Kibum’s hip. The scales beneath his fingertips felt almost like a fish’s scales, but smoother. He didn’t know why he had expected anything different. This creature wouldn’t let himself be anything but perfect.

“You are fascinating, Jonghyun,” Kibum said, his tongue darting out to lick at his lips. Jonghyun got another glimpse of his canines and reminded himself again that he should be afraid. He didn’t think the way his heart was pounding was at all related to fear. It should have been. “No one has stayed with me so willingly in ages.”

Jonghyun didn’t want to know what that meant. Kibum smiled as though he knew what Jonghyun was thinking. Kibum came forward again until his chest was pressing against Jonghyun’s.

“You want to kiss me,” Kibum observed, eyes focused on Jonghyun’s lips. “You are _fascinating_.”

Jonghyun was in the midst of a dilemma that Kibum solved for him, pressing him up against the smooth rock wall of the pool and pressing his mouth to Jonghyun’s. He ran his hand along Jonghyun’s neck, sharp nails sending shivers down Jonghyun’s back. Kibum’s sharp teeth caught Jonghyun’s lip and tugged at it, encouraging Jonghyun to open his mouth.

He did, and Kibum didn’t hesitate, slipping his tongue between Jonghyun’s teeth and pressing against the man’s tongue. That woke Jonghyun up a little bit, and he pushed back, tongue twining with Kibum’s. Kibum laughed softly, their mouths still connected. The sound was music, soft and lyrical, tugging at Jonghyun’s everything, demanding his attention.

Kibum pulled away slowly, peppering kisses to Jonghyun’s lips. Just as slowly as he’d pulled away, he sank beneath the water, placing open-mouthed kisses all along Jonghyun’s chest and stomach. His mouth was hot, so hot it almost burnt, but the water was cool. The sensations, one right after another, were so overwhelming that Jonghyun could do nothing but sit there, one hand scrabbling over the stone next to him and the other gripping Kibum’s hair beneath the water. Even the strands were thick and smooth, untangled by water and undamaged by the salt.

He didn’t come back up until Jonghyun drew him gently upwards, his fingers beneath Kibum’s jaw. Kibum kissed his way back to Jonghyun’s lips.

“You are so very beautiful for a human,” Kibum said, his hands sliding over Jonghyun’s shoulders to pull him from his seat in the water. “I’ve never seen anyone, man or woman, as beautiful as you are.”

Jonghyun expected to have to start treading water to keep afloat, but Kibum pulled him in close, supporting him effortlessly with one arm. He could feel the turbulence in the water below them, doubtless the work of Kibum’s tail, doing with ease what Jonghyun could never do. He was a strong swimmer, he had to be, but he’d never be able to hold two people above water like this. Kibum’s left hand was tracing the features of Jonghyun’s face, making him shiver every time the thick silver band brushed his skin. It was decorated with delicate silver etchings in the shape of what Jonghyun presumed to be waves. He could see green flecks inside the etching, the same green that was in Kibum’s eyes. He hadn’t noticed it before. It was mesmerizing, like looking up at the sky for the first time as a storm rolled in and noticing that suddenly it was green, not black like it was supposed to be, and knowing that you had to get somewhere safe, but the sky was too captivating to move until it was almost too late.

“Do you think I’m beautiful?” Kibum asked, lips directly above Jonghyun’s ear. The warm air made him shudder. At least he told himself it was the air. Jonghyun nodded. “Do you want to keep me?” Jonghyun could only nod again. “Can I keep you?” For a third time, Jonghyun nodded.

He really wasn’t surprised when he felt himself sinking below water. He did have enough presence of mind to take a breath before they went down, but it couldn’t last long enough, not with Kibum tugging him gently down a few feet at a time. He watched Kibum swim, long, powerful strokes of his tail, the blue and green fuzzing and blurring before his eyes until he couldn’t distinguish it from the dark waters around them.

They reached the bottom about the time Jonghyun’s lungs ached from holding his breath and he had to release it and watch it shimmer up toward the light. Kibum’s form curled around him, tail trapping Jonghyun’s legs to the bottom, hands stroking Jonghyun’s chest as though to ease the pain there.

 _“Breathe,”_ Kibum said. Jonghyun wasn’t sure how he heard it. It rang like a silver bell in his head, but the words were as clear as it had been above water. _“Breathe it in, Jonghyun. It will stop hurting.”_

Jonghyun pressed his hand to Kibum’s cheek, he leaned into it like a cat, and inhaled.

\---

“Sir, we can’t find the captain.”

Minho looked up at the sailor in front of him. It was unlike Jonghyun to be late for things like this. His own wedding if he ever got around to settling down, yes; the christening of his own ship, twice, yeah; even his own funeral when that time came. He was never late for shift changes. He said it gave the crew a bad idea of their duties if the captain wasn’t even willing to do them properly.

“Did anybody see where he went?”

“He followed that stream, sir. The rest of us went up that one to collect the ship’s water.”

“Okay, I’ll take you two with me. The rest of you, start the second shift heading back to the ship. Save one boat for when we find Jonghyun.”

They jogged through dense foliage for nearly half an hour before they found the pool, still and empty but a single shape floating in it. Minho was running for the water, reaching out to grab his captain. Jonghyun was a little too far away and he was prepared to dive in when a slight tremor of the otherwise still water pushed him close enough for Minho’s fingers to catch at Jonghyun’s fingers. Other hands helped to pull him from the water once he got closer, hauling his limp body from the pool and easing him down on a patch of grass.

Minho leaned forward, listening in vain for some kind of heartbeat or breath of air. None came. He’d been a sailor long enough to recognize a drowning. Minho rested his forehead against Jonghyun’s chest, taking a few breaths of his own before he sat up.

“He’s dead.”

“What happened?” one of the sailors asked, stepping back and eyeing the water as though it were somehow malevolently responsible for the death of his captain.

“I don’t know,” Minho said. “I’ve seen the best swimmers get disoriented and drown. It could have happened to him.” Somehow he doubted it. Jonghyun wasn’t the type. “Come on. We need to get him on the ship so we can take care of him properly. He deserves a burial at sea.”

They took turns carrying him, two at a time. Something kept drawing Minho’s eyes back to the flow of water they’d followed initially, a bright flash of blue and green that he could never find when he was looking for it. He felt the tickling of familiarity every time it happened, as though he should know what it was. The information was there, he was just missing some important clue. As he took his turn at Jonghyun’s shoulders, he looked down at his captain’s—his friend’s—face, at the faint smile there, and thought that might be the clue, if he could only figure out what it meant.


End file.
